Ingot molding handling apparatus

ABSTRACT

This invention is to automatically carry out the operation of arranging a fixed number of ingots delivered as completely cast and coagulated in a continuously casting mechanism and piling them up as rectangularly crossed with each other so as to be stacked in a desirable state in being conveyed or packed with a handling machine.

United States Patent Shoji Yamamoto, Shuhei Kubota, Tsuneo Yamamoto, all of Kanbara, Kanbaracho, Japan, Masataka Miyoshi, Tokyo, Japan Inventors Appl. No. 812,623

Filed Apr. 2, 1969 Patented June 8, 1971 Assignee Nippon Light Metal Company Limited Tokyo, Japan Priority Apr. 8, 1968 Japan 43/22798 INGOT MOLDING HANDLING APPARATUS 6 Claims, 13 Drawing Figs.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS l,5 16,049 1 III 924 Leutscher '164/329 2,942,312 6/1960 Deakins et al. 164/324 3,498,364 3/1970 Chambran 164/156X 3,267,531 8/1966 Buttkereit et al. 164/269 Primary Examiner-J. Spencer Overholser Assistant Examiner-V. Rising Attorney-William J. Daniel ABSTRACT: This invention is to automatically carry out the operation of arranging a fixed number of ingots delivered as completely cast and coagulated in a continuously casting mechanism and piling them up as rectangularly crossed with each other so as to be stacked in a desirable state in being conveyed or packed with a handling machine.

-.-I-I-ll-I---------------- at"! z I ux tuuuuuuuuwuu #3:! 1 J i PATENTED JUN 8l97l 3583472 sum 1 or 3 PATENTEU JUN 8 1911 SHEET 2 UF 3 PATENTEUJUN 8l97| 3583472 saw 3 or 3 INGOT MOLDING HANDLING APPARATUS This invention relates to apparatus for handling such moldings as ingots.

It has been already practiced to arrange and pile up a given number of products coming as continuously produced in such continuous production equipment as a continuously casting machine so as to be handled or packed.

As it is desirable in handling and packing to arrange a given number of such products having some length as particularly ingots and pile them up as alternately rectangularly crossed with each other, some apparatus for such purpose appear to have been suggested. However, such conventional apparatus have disadvantages that their formation is comparatively complicated, their operation cycle is comparatively long and they can not treat positively products produced at a high efficiency.

The present invention is to automatically efficiently carry out the operation of arranging a given number of such moldings as ingots delivered as completely cast and coagulated in a continuously casting equipment and piling them up as rectangularly crossed with each other so as to be stacked in a desirable state in being conveyed or packed with such handling machine as a forklift.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for automatically transferring and stacking ingots or moldings produced in a continuously casting mechanism or any other comparatively high speed production mechanism. 2

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which can simultaneously transfer and stack ingots.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus wherein preceding ingots are pushed and advanced with ingots to be transferred so that the transferring stroke may be very short.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus wherein an operation cycle is carried out within a short time so that an efficient handling operation may be made.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a continuously casting mechanism, conveyor and swinging roller base part used in an apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a handling delivering part of the apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing step by step the operation of a turntable and reciprocating roller base part in the apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a side view showing another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of FIG. 5.

In the drawings, the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 consists of a continuously casting part 1 and a handling delivering part 10. Said continuously casting part 1 has driving sprocket wheels 11 and 12 on both sides as shown in FIG. I so that a driving force by a prime moving mechanism 13 may be transmitted to the driving wheels on one side. A chain 19 is engaged around those driving sprocket wheels 12 and 11 so that molds 16 may be moved in turn by such chain 19. Said molds 16 are to be fed into a cooling tank 14 on one side and pulled up on the other side. During such movement, a molten metal'is cast into said molds and is cooled and solidified by cooling water fed into the cooling tank 14 through an inlet pipe'lS and discharged through discharging parts 17. The moldsl6 pulled up from the other side part of the cooling tank 14 provided with the driving sprocket wheels 12 are properly-impacted on the bottom surface sides so that ingots A may be peeled and dropped onto an endless conveyor 4 set in the upper part of the driving wheels 12. A roller base 3 is arranged as supported with a pivot 31 in the intermediate part for the end part of said conveyor 4. A first operating cylinder 32 is provided in the other end part of said roller base 3 so that, by operating said operating cylinder 32, the roller base 3 may be swung in the vertical direction at both ends around the pivot 31 as a center.

Below such roller base 3 is provided a reciprocating roller base 5 so as to be movable in a direction intersecting at right angles with the transferring direction of the roller base 3 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Said reciprocating roller base 5 is so made as to project on one side edge 54 onto such roller base 3 as is shown in FIG. I when said roller base 3 has risen on one end side. Further, above this roller base 3 is provided a second operating cylinder 2 with a supporting seat 23 so as to be parallel with the direction of the conveyor 4 and the roller base 3 when it has risen on one end side. At the tip of its operating rod 21 is fitted a pawl piece 22 so as to be bendable only toward the supporting seat 23 by a pivot 24. Above the conveyor 4 is provided a counting element a so as to count delivered ingots A or moldings. In the returning position of the operating rod 21 is provided a limit switch b so as to detect the return of the operating rod. Further, in the tail end part of the roller base 3 is set another limit switch c so as to detect the motion of said roller base 3.

The above mentioned reciprocating roller base 5 is provided with proper rollers 52 on both sides as shown in FIG. 2 so that said roller base 5 may reciprocate with said rollers 52 on rail members 53 set on the handling delivering part 10 and may repeat the motion of projecting in one end part into the range of the swinging roller base 3 as shown with solid lines in said drawing and projecting in the other end part onto the later described turntable 6 as shown with imaginary lines. Further, such reciprocating roller base 5 is provided with a series of rollers S I, is pivoted with a pivot 55a to a frame la provided with the swinging roller base 3 and the conveyor 4 and is also provided with a stopper 55 to which is attached a stopper piece 55b so that the ingots A mounted on the reciprocating roller base 5 may be allowed to advance together with said reciprocating roller base 5 toward the turntable 6 but, in case the reciprocating roller base 5 moves again toward the frame la, the ingots A may be engaged with said stopper 55 so as not to return onto the swinging roller base 3. In order to reciprocate said reciprocating roller base 5, a third operating cylinder 7 is provided in the upper part of the above mentioned handling delivering part 10 with a fixing seat 71. That is to say, a connecting member 73 fixed to its operating rod 72 is fixed at the lower end to said reciprocating roller base 5 and limit switches c and d are provided in the respective end parts of the operating range of the operating rod 72. Further, cooling showers 9 are set above such reciprocating roller base 5 so that the ingots A on said roller base 5 may be well cooled with water jetted through jetting pipes 91. Further, a water discharging trough 92 is set below said reciprocating roller base 5 so as to receive this cooling water and discharge it out of the handling delivering part 10.

The turntable 6 is suspended by such line members 83 as chains fixed to the front-end of an operating rod 82 in a fourth operating cylinder 8 provided in the upper part of the handling delivering part 10 with a supporting seat 81. That is to say, said line members 83 engage vertically through pulleys 84 and 85 so as to supportthe turntable. An actuator 62 operated by such medium as an oil pressure is set as a rotating operation means in the lower part of said turntable 6 so as to alternately rotate said turntable by A fifth operating cylinder 107 is set below the above mentioned water discharging trough 92 in the lower part of the handling delivering part 10 so that the ingotsmounted on theturntable 6 may be further pushed out. In the lower part of the right end side shown in FIG. 2 of the handling delivering part 10 are provided rail-shaped supporting seats I08 receiving and supporting the ingots thus pushed out. A light projector k and such light-receptive detecting means I as a photo-transistor are provided as opposed to each other in the position of the level corresponding to the surface of the rollers SI on the reciprocating roller base 5 in said handling delivering part 10 so that the instruction of said detecting means I may be transmitted to the fourth operating cylinder 8 and such rotating means 62 as the above mentioned actuator. Two limit switches h and i are arranged at an angular spacing 'of 90 as shown in FIG. 3 for the turntable 6 so that the rotating direction of the rotating means 62 may be switched over. A limit switch 3 for switching over the pressure source operating direction of the operating cylinder 8 is provided in the position where such turntable 6 reaches the lowermost step. Further, two limit switches m and n for switching over the operation of the fifth operating cylinder 107 are provided as opposed to each other in the rod operating range of the operating cylinder 107 in the part of the position of the fall of such turntable 6.

The operation of such apparatus of the present invention as is mentioned above shall be explained. When the ingots which have been completely cast and coagulated by such continuously casting machine I as is mentioned above are mounted on the conveyor 4, are electrically counted by the counting element a and reach a present number, such device as a solenoid valve (not shown) will be operated to operate the second operating cylinder 2 with an air pressure or the like so that a fixed number of the counted ingots may be scraped off with the pawl piece 22 and may be pulled out onto the swinging roller base 3. The ingots A thus pulled out will be positioned accurately on the swinging roller base 3 by the side edge 54 of the reciprocating roller base 5.

Further, when this operation of pulling them out is completed, the upper end part of the pawl piece 22 will operate the limit switch b. When the limit switch b is thus operated, the above mentioned solenoid valve will be switched over, the rod 21 and pawl piece 22 will be immediately returned, at the same time the rod of the first operating cylinder 32 will be extended and the roller base 3 inclined as in the solid lines in FIG. I will be made horizontal as shown with the imaginary lines. That is to say, the ingot receiving side of the swinging roller base 3 projecting above the reciprocating roller base so as to be continued to the conveyor 4 as shown with the solid lines will be discontinued and will fall down to the reciprocating roller base 5 so as to be in parallel with the lower surface of said roller base 5. Thereby a group of the ingots A scraped off will be transferred onto the reciprocating roller base 5 as in FIG. 4A. When the swinging roller base 3 becomes horizontal as mentioned above, the limit switch c will be operated in the tail end part of the base so that the solenoid valve may operate to feed an oil pressure to the third operating cylinder 7, the cylinder 7 will be contracted and the reciprocating roller base 5 on which are mounted the ingots A will be pulled in rightward as shown in FIG. 2. At the time of such pulling operation, the stopper 55 will fall toward the handling delivering part 10 side and the ingots A as mounted on the roller base 5 will be pulled into said handling delivering part 10 as in FIGS. 48 and 4C. When the reciprocating roller base 5 has reached the extreme right end, the upper end part of the connecting member 73 in the operating cylinder 7 will operate the limit switch d so as to switch over the oilinflow direction in the operating cylinder 7 and thereby the moving direction of the reciprocating roller base 5 will be reversed. That is to say, in this position, the ingots A mounted on said roller base 5 will have been perfectly carried into the handling delivering part 10. If the reciprocating roller base 5 is moved reversely from this state, said ingots A will en gage with the stopper 55 as shown in FIG. 4D, will remain on said roller base 5 due to the rotation of the rollers 51 of the roller base 5 and only the roller base 5 will return. The ingots A thus conveyed into the handling delivering part 10 and left there will be cooled with cooling water by the showers 9. The above mentioned limit switch d will also return the swinging roller base 3 and will again incline it so as to be able to receive the next ingots.

When such operation as is mentioned above is repeated, the ingots A conveyed in turn into the handling delivering part 10 as arranged in the same direction as shown in FIG. 2 will be now conveyed out onto the turntable 6 as in FIGS. 4E and 4F. When the rod 72 of the operating cylinder 7 has reached the extremity of the extension, the limit switch e will be operated so that the turntable 6 may fall by the height corresponding to one step of the ingots A. When this fall ends, said turntable 6 will be rotated by so as to be ready to receive the next ingots. The details of such operation of the turntable 6 are made by the light projector k and such detecting means I as a phototransistor. That is to say, when the detecting means I is detecting the light of the light projector k, the fourth oil pressure type operating cylinder 8 will not operate but, when this light is intercepted, by the instruction of the detecting means I, the operating rod 82 of this operating cylinder 8 will contract by one step so that the turntable 6" will first fall by one step corresponding to the height of the ingot. Anyhow, the moment the light of the light projector k is received, the fall of the turntable 6 will stop. Therefore, when the ingots A are not conveyed onto the turntable 6, the rail-shaped supporting seats 61 will stop in a state coinciding with the surface of the rollers 51 of the reciprocating roller base 5. In case the ingots A are conveyed onto the turntable 6, they will stop in a state that their uppermost surface coincides with the surface of the rollers 51. The instruction of such detecting means I as is mentioned above will operate the rotating means set in the lower part of the turntable 6 and will stop it by operating the limit switch It or i at the extremity of its rotation, that is to say, the turntable will stop on an accurate turning line at 90 so as to be ready to receive the next ingotsJAs the rotating directions of the turntable 6 by the limit switches h and i are alternately reverse to each other, when a given number of ingots have been thus received, the turntable 6 will reach such lowermost step as is shown with the solid lines in FIG. 2 and will operate the limit switch g so that the fifth operating cylinder 107 may operate to push all the ingots on the turntable 6 further out of the turntable and to transfer them onto the rail-shaped supporting seats 108. At the extremity of the extension of this operating cylinder 107, the limit switch n will operate to switch over the pressure source inflow direction of said operating cylinder 107 so as to reversely move the rod. When this rod has perfectly retreated from the surface of the turntable 6, the limit switch m will be operated to stop said operating cylinder I07 and at the same to switch over the pressure source of the above mentioned fourth operating cylinder 8 so that the rod 82 may be extended to pull up the turntable 6. When the turntable has reached theextremity of its rise, it will stop by operating the limit switch f, will be at the same rotated by 90 and will stop with the direction of its supporting seats 61 at right angles with the direction of the reciprocating roller base so as to be ready for the next handling delivering cycle. The ingots delivered onto the supporting seats 108 will be carried out to any required position with a forklift or the like or will be properly packed.

In FIGS. 5 and 6 is shown another embodiment of the present invention. In such apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 as is mentioned above, the continuously casting part and the handling delivering part are set with the conveying directions perfectly at right angles with each other. Therefore, in the case of actually setting them, there will be required a site and building having the length of the continuously casting line as one side and the length of the handling delivering line as the other side adjacent to it. Thus, even if the cost of the apparatus itself is very low, it will be very disadvantageous to the construction of the factory. Therefore, in order to avoid such disadvantage, in the apparatus shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the handling delivering line is set in parallel with the direction of the length of the continuously casting line. Its formation is the same as is shown in the above mentioned FIGS. 1 to 4 at least as regards the continuously casting mechanism to the swinging roller base 3. When the swinging roller base 3 becomes horizontal, the ingots will be transferred to the reciprocating roller base in the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 but will be mounted on a delivering table in the apparatus shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. That is to say, in FIGS. 5 and 6 is shown the formation of this delivering table and others following it. As evident with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, this delivering table 120 is fitted to the tip part of an arm 126 provided on a turntable I21 provided in one end part of a handling delivering part 10'. This turntable I21 is provided so as to be reciprocally rotatable in an angular range of 90 by an oil pressure actuator 123 provided in its central part and further an oil pressure cylinder 124 in provided within the arm 126 so that the delivering table 120 may be extended and contracted from the turntable 121 and further may be elevated and lowered in the vertical direction in such range as is shown with solid lines and imaginary lines in FIG. 5 by an oil pressure operating cylinder I25 provided on one side of the handling delivering part The delivering table 120 is provided with rollers 120a arranged in it and an engaging end 1201: on its end surface so that, when said engaging end lb has risen, it may engage with an engaging piece S'a of a reciprocating roller base 5 positioned above a water discharging trough 92. The formation of the turntable 6 and others after this reciprocating roller base 5 is substantially the same as is explained with reference to FIG. I to 3 mentioned above.

The operation of the apparatus shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 shall be explained. When the swinging roller base 3 becomes horizontal as shown in FIGS, 1 to 4, the ingots A will be mounted on the delivering table 120 positioned in the casting line part, then this delivering table 120 will be rotated by 90 by such rotating means 123 as an oil pressure actuator, will be conveyed to the handling delivering part 10, will become parallel and will operate the limit switch C. That is to say, by the operation of this limit switch C the swinging roller base 3 will be returned to the old position, the oil pressure operating cylinder 125 will be extended to elevate the turntable 121 and delivering table 120 from the solid line position up to the imaginary line position in FIG. 5 so that the engaging end 12% may be engaged with the engaging piece 5'11 and at the same time the limit switch d may be operated. By the operation of this limit switch d, the operating cylinder 124 will be extended to propel the delivering table 120 and reciprocating roller base 5'. Therefore, the ingots on this reciprocating roller base 5' will be conveyed or pushed out toward the turntable 6. When the limit switch 1 operates at the extremity of its extension, the operating cylinder 124 will return, the ingots mounted on it will be left on the reciprocating roller base 5' by the stopper 55 and only the delivering table 120 will be pulled off. When the limit switch e operates, the delivering table 120 which has thus retreated to the imaginary line position in FIG. 5 will fall down to the old position (the solid line position in FIG. 5), will be thereby disengaged from the reciprocating roller base 5 and will be at the same time ready to receive the next ingots. The ingots A left on the reciprocating roller base 5' will then be stacked on the turntable 6 through the process shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and, 4, will be conveyed out of the turntable 6 by the operating cylinder 107 and will be delivered by a lifting mechanism or the like the same as is already described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

We claim:

l. Stacking conveying apparatus for east ingots (A) delivered one by one in succession from an ingot casting machine comprising means (3,4) for taking said ingots from said casting machine and collecting them in groups arranged in side-by-side relationship, a turntable (6) to which said groups of ingots are to be delivered, said turntable being vertically movable and rotatable to permit a plurality of said groups of ingots to be stacked in criss-crossed direction, and transfer conveying means (5) between said receiving means and said turntable comprising a roller conveyor (51,52) at least coextensive in length with a group of ingots mounted for bodily reciprocation on a horizontal path (53) to and from one end position for receiving a group of ingots from said collecting means and another end position for delivering a group of ingots to said turntable,.and one way ingot stop means (55,55b arranged adjacent said conveyor path intermediate said end positions, said stop means allowing a group of ingots received on said conveyor in its first position to move past with the conveyor upon reciprocation thereof to its second position but preventing the return of said group of ingots as the conveyor returns to its first position. t

2. Apparatus as In claim 1 wherein said ingot collecting means comprises an inclined conveyor (4) onto which the ingots are deposited from the casting apparatus, said inclined conveyor including a pivotally mounted terminal section (3) accommodating one group of ingots and means (32) for pivoting said conveyor section from its normally inclined position to a horizontal position for delivery to said roller conveyor.

3. Apparatus as in claim 2 wherein said roller conveyor and said terminal section are arranged in overlapping relation, said terminal section on pivoting to said horizontal position transferring the support of the group of ingots collected thereon to said roller conveyor.

4. The apparatus as in claim 2 wherein said terminal section and said roller conveyor are arranged in spaced relation and including a displaceable table for shifting the ingot group from said terminal section to said roller conveyor.

5. Apparatus as in claim 2 including counting means (a) associated with said inclined conveyor for counting the ingots passing therealong to said terminal section and means (24,b for actuating the terminal section pivoting means when a predetermined number of ingots corresponding to a group has passed said counting means.

6. Apparatus as in claim 5 including pusher means (21,22,24) for positively consolidating the ingots of a group on said terminal section, said pusher means being actuated in response to said counting means counting said predetermined number of ingots, and control means (b) operated by said pusher means for actuating said terminal section pivoting means when said group of ingots has been consolidated. 

1. Stacking conveying apparatus for cast ingots (A) delivered one by one in succession from an ingot casting machine comprising means (3,4) for taking said ingots from said casting machine and collecting them in groups arranged in side-by-side relationship, a turntable (6) to which said groups of ingots are to be delivered, said turntable being vertically movable and rotatable to permit a plurality of said groups of ingots to be stacked in criss-crossed direction, and transfer conveying means (5) between said receiving means and said turntable comprising a roller conveyor (51,52) at least coextensive in length with a group of ingots mounted for bodily reciprocation on a horizontal path (53) to and from one end position for receiving a group of ingots from said collecting means and another end position for delivering a group of ingots to said turntable, and one way ingot stop means (55,55b ) arranged adjacent said conveyor path intermediate said end positions, said stop means allowing a group of ingots received on said conveyor in its first position to move past with the conveyor upon reciprocation thereof to its second position but preventing the return of said group of ingots as the conveyor returns to its first position.
 2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said ingot collecting means comprises an inclined conveyor (4) onto which the ingots are deposited from the casting apparatus, said inclined conveyor including a pivotally mounted terminal section (3) accommodating one group of ingots and means (32) for pivoting said conveyor section from its normally inclined position to a horizontal position for delivery to said roller conveyor.
 3. Apparatus as in claim 2 wherein said roller conveyor and said terminal section are arranged in overlapping relation, said terminal section on pivoting to said horizontal position transferring the support of the group of ingots collected thereon to said roller conveyor.
 4. The apparatus as in claim 2 wherein said terminal section and said roller conveyor are arranged in spaced relation and including a displaceable table (120) for shifting the ingot group from said terminal section to said roller conveyor.
 5. Apparatus as in claim 2 including counting means (a) associated with said inclined conveyor for counting the ingots passing therealong to said terminal section and means (24,b ) for actuating the terminal section pivoting means when a predetermined number of ingots corresponding to a group has passed said counting means.
 6. Apparatus as in claim 5 including pusher means (21,22,24) for positively consolidating the ingots of a group on said terminal section, said pusher means being actuated in response to said counting means counting said predetermined number of ingots, and control means (b) operated by said pusher means for actuating said terminal section pivoting means when said group of ingots has been consolidated. 